


From the Water

by St_Machine



Category: Florence + the Machine
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 22:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5515742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/St_Machine/pseuds/St_Machine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Florence had always known that water can't be anyone's friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Water

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic from tumblr but posted under the changed title. Not very romantic but honestly weird. Inspired by the comment section on YouTube.

“Florence?”

The concentrated expression disappeared from her face. She frowned but didn’t answer and remained silent. Rob sighed. No, he knew the girl could hear him clearly and just pretended being deaf. He was also aware of such a state Flo was now in – silence, the pale face and strained attention in her eyes as if she was watching someone or something crazily far away. Personally Rob could see nothing but the vast smooth of the sea, a couple of people trying to be close enough to the shore and waves, big and small or really enormous, fiercely breaking the tiny ones and causing the snow white foam. And what was she looking for in the horizon, in that thin line where the sea and the sky met and became one?

She turned to him, her eyes wide open and a bit scared and confused. Rob was waiting for at least a word from her but she didn’t give out even a sound. Isa was napping nearby, one arm curled under her head and another one outstretched in Flo’s direction. Florence touched Isa’s fingers with hers lightly and Rob could swear she wanted to say something. Then she slowly stood up.  
*  
The little girl was standing on the edge of the swimming pool and looked down at the crystal clear water it was filled to the brim with. She could see the bottom of the pool, decorated with blue and white mosaic and it mesmerized her, called her down, down, wanted her to dive straight in and reach it. The child tried to look aside but the mosaic was constantly drawing her attention to its pattern and the girl couldn’t help staring at it.

“Florence!” the mother said, having noticed that her daughter was standing still and looking at the water. “Do you want to swim?”

No answer. The black curls fell across the child’s face, hiding the attention the girl was looking at the mosaic with. Evelyn stood up and repeated louder:

“Hey, Flo!”

Finally, little Florence lifted her head reluctantly and looked up at Evelyn with a question in her eyes.

“Do you want to swim, honey?”

“Yes… Deep down. To let the water take me…” the girl whispered the last words so that her mother couldn’t hear them. She had learned to swim at a very young age and lots of people tended to say she was like a fish in the water. That’s why Evelyn didn’t notice immediately that something was wrong.

Flo dived in without splash, quietly, like a real fish, opened her eyes and saw the mosaic instantly. It called, whispered, bewitched her by its blue shades and perfect symmetry. It was getting closer, closer, closer… Down. The girl’s tiny fingers touched the bottom in excitement, the rapture overwhelmed her. She moved her hand along the pattern, feeling its warmness and hearing the calm voice in her ears. She finally reached it! She did it! Florence opened her mouth to cry out with the pure joy but the water rushed into her, filled her throat, poured into her little body. Flo squinted and moved her feet towards the bottom, trying to get out of the tight water’s embrace. Away, away, go away, to breath in the fresh air, to run from the dangerous mosaic, run, run… Flo flinched and suddenly felt better as if she could… breath in the water? How could it be possible? But yes, yes, it was true; she could actually sense how the air was filling her lungs. The strange air dwelling secretly beneath the water’s smooth. The little Flo found its shelter and now she could breath it, there was no use being afraid to drown, because she was like a mermaid… The girl smiled, raised her hands and suddenly felt like going up, up… Where? Had she become an air balloon and was trying to break free from the pool?

Evelyn screamed when she noticed Nick’s body appear from the water. She could easily see a small figure of her daughter and her dark wet hair on Nick’s arm. Florence was smiling with incredible joy, her face was shining with happiness like if she couldn’t understand why her parents were worrying so much. She could breathe in the water… And they not. Let it be her secret. Her bargain with the water.

She could still hear the displeased whisper of mosaic from behind.

*  
“Florence!!!”

Isa ran through the house, shouting that at the top of her voice and shaking with fear. There was deathly silence around and the girl sobbed, storming into her friend’s room. It was all mess, like always, but today it was especially messy and this worried Isa even more. It was kind of the dangerous mess. Like Flo didn’t care at all and when she didn’t care it meant… meant that… Isa ran out of the room and headed right for a bathroom. The door was locked and Isabella practically howled that she hadn’t checked out that bloody door earlier. She pushed it furiously and cried Flo’s name in despair. Her fear grew bigger and then she couldn’t even recall how she managed to force the lock.  
The bath was full and the floor was also wet in some places but Isa didn’t care. Florence was lying motionless on the bottom and Isa rushed to the bath with a long scream. The second later she pulled the weak and soaked body of her best friend out of the water. Shivering, the girl tried to do CPR and, to her great relief and astonishment, Flo started coughing.

“F-flo?” she caught herself at stuttering the words and trembling all over.

The singer gave another cough and gasped for a breath. A few minutes later Isa could hear her say under her breath:

“I... I tried...”

“I just can’t let you do that,” Isa sobbed, feeling immense tiredness and awful weakness.

“But... I only wanted to breathe...”

“What?”

She could see the ghost of a smile appear on the pale Flo’s face. And the girl didn’t answer.  
Florence could recognize the call of the water so close.  
*  
The dark covered her, promising a safe shelter where no one would find her. There was a fragrant scent of the ocean in her nostrils, the wetness in her hands and blackness in her eyes. She plunged into waters, so cold and so sweet, only they could hide their daughter, their little mermaid. How she wished everyone left her in peace and quiet! Despite the darkness, filling every nerve, she opened her mouth, letting the ocean in and trying to find the air. It was somewhere near her, she just needed to wait a bit, just a bit. It was not dangerous as the air would appear soon. Yes, very soon.

The light pierced the blissful blackness and Florence wanted to scream and to come back to the ocean but the moment had been already gone. Instead of it, she felt something wet on her face and neck as if something was pouring on her down from the height.

“Hey, she has come to senses!”  
“Flo!”  
“Are you okay?”  
“Put this goddamn bottle away!”

The singer made an effort to raise herself on her elbows and looked around. Isa, Rob, Mairead and Chris. The drops were falling down from her chin and cheeks.  
“What happened?” that were the first words she said since having come to senses.

“You fell off the bike”, Mairead explained. “Like… You were riding too fast and suddenly lost control and fell off it and passed out. We were so scared but Isa suggested to pour some mineral water on your head.”

“Thanks,” Florence mumbled and sat slowly.

She was so close to the underwater air… But she would find it in the end. There was still the bargain made long ago.  
*  
“Hush, Florence, hush- It was just a bad dream and nothing more.”

Her friend’s body was shaking in her arms like a caught bird. Flo wasn’t crying but breathing heavily, her eyes full of uncontrollable terror. She woke Isa up in the dead of the night with a frightened scream, all trembling and sobbing.

“Shh, shh, everything will be okay, it was just a dream.”  
“It h-haunts me, Iz, it haunts me. This dark water has been haunting me all my life, that mosaic, the pattern...”  
“Now there is nothing to scare you,” repeated Isabella again and again quietly, rocking her to sleep.  
“I’ll never find it,” whispered Florence with a vacant stare at the full moon in the window.  
“What exactly?”  
“The air beneath the water. When I was a child I could. But now that’s lost. Now these waves are choking me in my sleep”

Isa hove a sigh and stroked Flo’s red hair. She couldn’t answer anything.

*  
Rob pushed Isa anxiously but lightly to wake her up. Speaking under his breath, he told the girl everything he saw. But Florence didn’t notice that. The only thing she was thinking of was the sea, those large waves breaking to small ones and turning into the white foam. To swim to the horizon, to dive in the deep. To get to the unknown lands and touch the line joining the sky and the sea, to find the border between the air and water where they merge in one.

Go faster.  
To the waves, calling her welcomingly and ready to meet her.

“Florence!”

She shouldn’t have stopped. Why did she always stop, hearing this voice? Why? Another moment was slipping away. The waves gave her the last chance and she had no right to miss it.

“You won’t find it.”

“How do you know?” Florence shouted, turning to her abruptly and looking up at her in despair and fury. “You can’t even imagine that!”

Isabella stood still, watching the tall figure in front of her.

“It’s gone. Believe me… and don’t leave me. Don’t go down,” she said in an anguished but quiet voice, tearing Flo apart and engraving into her broken mind. “Please.”

Sudden weakness overwhelmed Florence, she felt confused as a child. Like if she was a little girl again, enchanted by the mosaic on the bottom of the swimming pool. It was hard to resist the call of the sea behind her but resisting Isa was thousand times harder. Flo took a look at the sea. There were just the waves, big and small, strong and mighty but… nothing more?

Isa was still standing in front of the girl, waiting.  
“I won’t,” Florence breathed out hoarsely, feeling the heart beating under her fingers. It was nearly breaking her chest, that monstrous drum. “Won’t do that. For you.”


End file.
